Will SYTYKM winners today be celebrities tomorrow?

This article was provided by the Ontario Mining Association (OMA), an organization that was established in 1920 to represent the mining industry of the province.

So You Think You Know Mining (SYTYKM)
 
The filmmaking, writing, musical, comedic and overall artistic talents of a number of high school students from different regions of the province were given a well-deserved spotlight this evening at the Ontario Mining Association’s So You Think you Know Mining awards gala.  The event, which attracted more than 200 invited guests, was held at the Royal Ontario Museum on June 5, 2012.

The potential of all the winning student filmmakers was front and centre at the award ceremonies.  The Best Overall winner was Scott Keyes from H.B. Beal Secondary School in London for his production “The Melodic Miners.”  He received $5,000 and his school will also receive a $500 donation to support future filmmaking.

There were two excellent close contenders for the top honour.  Brooklyn Vercruyssen from St. Anne’s in Clinton was First Runner-Up for “Surviving the Storm,” which included spectacular footage of a tornado lashing Goderich’s beach area on Lake Huron.  Second Runner-Up was Jeremy Keith from Canterbury High School in Ottawa for the whimsical “Billy’s Breakfast Bash.”  Each runner-up received $1,250.

Other prizes of $2,500 went to Braedan Lee of H.B. Beal Secondary School for “Mineless Land” in the Best Comedy category, Hananeel Robertson of Don Mills Collegiate in Toronto for “OMG! Ontario Mining Girls” in the Best Writing category and Leah Gosselin from Theriault high school in Timmins for “Une affaire indispensable” in the Best video in a language other than English category.  Ms Gosselin won a SYTYKM runner-up prize last year for a video production in English. 

Peter Lilly from Lawrence Park Collegiate in Toronto was a double winner for “Mined Over Matter.”  He captured both the Best Directing award and the OMA Academy Award.  Each honour earned him $2,500.

The Best Animation $2,500 award was earned by Armin Khajehnassiri and Erind Zaganjori from A.Y. Jackson high school in Toronto for “Mining in Ontario.”  Andy Le from Northview Heights in Toronto won in the Best Music category for “Miner Harmonics” and Omar Hoblos from Don Mills Collegiate in Toronto won for “Without Mining” in the Best 30-Second Commercial category, a new prize.

Cody Trites from Confederation Secondary School in Val Caron filmed the awards gala for future airing on the OMA website.  He earned a $500 prize for “Carved from Stone” and his school received a matching donation to promote filmmaking.  All winners also received an Oscar-like SYTYKM statuette.

“Congratulations to all these young talented winners,” said OMA President Chris Hodgson. “In addition, the OMA would like to thank the teachers in Ontario high schools who encouraged and guided the video efforts of their students as well as parents for the on-going and important support of their children.” 

These SYTYKM winners are an extremely accomplished group of students.  Their SYTYKM “scholarships” will help them all move on and further their education. The awards gala attracted strong support from the mining industry, government, media and the education sector.  The SYTYKM winners had parents, siblings and teachers on hand to share in this acknowledgment of their success.

For more information on the SYTYKM competition see the OMA website www.oma.on.ca.  Watch for the launch of the fifth SYTYKM competition in the Fall of 2012.